Department of the Army civilians may not wear the Soldier uniform, but they are still as much a part of the Army as those they support by enabling their readiness.
That's the message Maj. Gen. Doug Gabram, commander of the Aviation and Missile Command, brought to AMCOM employees at a town hall meeting on Feb. 28 in the Bob Jones Auditorium.
"AMCOM exists to support the Soldier, to win our nation's wars. You have a huge part in delivering readiness to the warfighter. What you do is powerful. You are part of a bigger team," Gabram told the nearly 650 employees who attended the town hall in person in addition to those that participated via VTC worldwide.
"If you were deployed and something happened to you, we would be there for you. We leave no one behind and that includes you, too, because you are part of the United States Army and you wear this flag. That's the team you are on. You are a main player."
Gabram reviewed how the Army Materiel Command mission and the AMCOM mission nest together in support of the Army's mission to fight and win the nation's wars. While AMC's mission is to develop and deliver materiel readiness solutions for the Army, AMCOM's mission is to develop and deliver responsive aviation, missile and calibration materiel readiness to the Army. AMCOM's mission is part of the campaign plan that AMCOM senior leadership approved during a recent leadership off-site meeting.
"A big part of building a campaign plan is to make sure you're nested to the commander's higher intent," Gabram said.
AMC's priorities -- Strategic Readiness, Future Force, and Soldiers and People -- are followed by six strategic objectives -- Sustainment Doctrine, Sustainable Readiness, Materiel Readiness, Force Projection, Battlefield Sustainment and Materiel Development. AMCOM will use its core competencies -- Support to Acquisition; Sustainment Logistics; Research, Development and Engineering; Organic Industrial Base; Field/Sustainment Maintenance; Calibration; Security Assistance; and Contracting -- to focus on four lines of effort under Unified Action -- Sustainable Materiel Readiness (AMCOM Logistics Center), Future Army (AMCOM Plans and Strategy), Human Dimension (AMCOM Human Resource Management) and Resource Management (AMCOM Resource Management).
Quoting from a message written by Acting AMRDEC Director Jeff Langhout to AMRDEC employees, Gabram read, "I ask that if you are not performing work for our Army that you honestly evaluate if you can pull a thread through your efforts that can translate value to our Army. If you can, then let's keep driving. But if you cannot pull a thread of value to our Army then yes, we will evaluate the need to continue to support that customer."
Gabram mentioned the Holistic Aviation Assessment Task Force, which submitted 63 recommendations in 2016 for improvements in Army Aviation. Of those, AMCOM, as part of AMC, has the lead for five,he said.
"We're going to take a look at what we do," Gabram said. "We're going to look at our output to the Army. We will add value to our Army through our lines of effort in developing and delivering materiel readiness. "
Specifically, Gabram referred to Unified Action, which realigned the Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center and the Army Contracting Command-Redstone with AMCOM, taking the three organizations back to a similar arrangement they had in previous years.
"We've got to trace what we do back to why we do what we do and that is about readiness for our Soldiers," Gabram said. "It's about everybody on the team pulling their weight and holding each other accountable."
Deputy commander Bill Marriott also spoke at the town hall, focusing on resource management, the employee hiring freeze and contracting.
"We are still operating under a continuing resolution that finds us at fiscal year 2016 levels and no new startups," Marriott said. "Because of the hiring freeze and the continuing resolution, we have to prioritize. We are working through this. We are aware of the issues."
Gabram emphasized that he wants to focus on improving employee communication.
"We need to work on this as a team and that starts with me," he said. "Town halls and other things like this are great, but we also have to make sure to get the message pushed down throughout the entire workforce. You have to believe in what we're doing and you have to feel you are part of the team. That can only happen when we are communicating with each other."
Gabram is planning a series of lunch and learn meetings, walk-abouts and visits to AMCOM organizations to take the AMCOM message directly to employees. He will also use more formal communication channels -- AMCOM Flight, a newcomer's briefing, counseling and supervisor training, monthly feedback from the workforce and social media -- to enhance employee communication.
While praising the AMCOM team, Gabram and AMCOM Command Sgt. Maj. Glen Vela recognized a few of the command's top employees for their accomplishments. They recognized Stacie Clemmons, who was named an AMC Employee of the Quarter for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2016. Clemmons works for AMCOM Information Management (G-6) and has been instrumental in preparing AMCOM operations for migration to the "cloud," a type of Internet-based computing that provides shared computer processing resources and data to computer and other devices on demand. She received a Commander's Award for Civilian Service and a Four-Star Note from AMC commander Gen. Gustave Perna.
They also presented length of service awards to: 35 years -- Charlotte Slaughter, AMCOM Logistics Center; and 30 years -- David Beck, Randal Cannon, James Combs, David Jones, Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center; Richard Lewis, AMCOM Logistics (G-4); and Odri Hastings and Jerry Scott, AMCOM Resource Management (G-6).
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